wind-Wiz-Hum-Mal-Neu

Nethack ascension #2

Neutral male human wizard

Introduction

Ok, I have already ascended once, with a samurai, so this ought to be a little
different. Playing a wizard was a pain in the beginning, I always got beaten up
by a mumak or leocrotta, but after I learned to pull back before it was too
late, the things begun to work.

Warming up

I started to ascend, and to my big surprise, found a wand of wishing at dungeon
level 2 ! This one was starting way too good, I had to die on no time. I
wished a blessed +2 grey dragon scale male, two blessed scrolls of charging,
but only got one, and blessed +3 speed boots. With the right equipment I got as
far as to level six, where a mumak and a tiger blocked my way. I backtraced to
the gnomish mines, where I gained several levels.

I cleaned the mines, including luck stone, but never found a bag of holding.
Sold lots of stuff at gnomish town, even found a +3 pot to protect my head -
the pot didn't interfere with cast spells too much. When I was ready, I decided
to face mumak and the tiger again. This time it was quite easy - last time they
hit me worth of 30 HP while I hit them once (with my blessed +1 quarterstaff) -
this time I got the mumak with a few force bolts, then went back up to let
myself heal.

Statues at the Oracle gave me two spellbooks, spellbook of healing and
spellbook of confuse monsters. I continued descending, fought my way thru
Sokoban where I got my amulet of reflection. Darn, still no bag of holding. I
continued descending until I found Medusa's island. I knew I had to turn back
since I couldn't levitate nor jump. On my way back I found a spellbook of jump
and a spellbook of magic mapping.

With my new spell, although it failed 78% of the time, I mapped all known
levels, but still I couldn't find portal to Fort Ludios. Still, I knew where
the vaults were so I collected decent amount of money and went to see the
priest at level 15, where I had my stash of stuff right next to my altar. My
altar had no priest, but luckily there are a lawful altar with a priest on the
same level. With some donations, I got my natural armor class down to 4.

The Quest

After wandering around, I decided to wish for a bag of holding. With new
possession it would be easier to go on to the Quest. The Quest was easy. In
fact, too easy. With the spellbook of charm monsters and my Magicbane the Dark
One was not an obstacle - when he summoned monsters, I charmed them. I had to
follow him upstairs until I got to block his way up, so all I had to do was to
hit him. In no time, I was holding the Eye of the Aethiopica (and the Bell). My
first time to get this far with a wizard, by the way. I walked back to my
leader, talked to him and he let me to have the amulet. Next, I'd be to face
Medusa.

Medusa's island

When I first entered Medusa's island, an invisible minotaur summoned some
monsters around me. Yellow dragon, hill giant, tiger, vampire and a few others.
I started hitting them until the yellow dragon hit me hard. My hit points
dropped from 80 to 1 (SIC) and I escaped upstairs. When I was still healing
myself, a cockatrice entered the room. I healed myself, killed the beast and
wielded it. I went back down and in no time the room as decorated by a few nice
status. I threw my fellow away and started bashing the dragon.

I cleared the waters with my new spell, magic missile, then jumped over the
waters to Medusa. I wore a blindfold, entered the room and decided to beat
Medusa instead of using the mirror I had in my bag. She escaped downstairs and I
followed. I already gave her some serious blows, so it only took me to hits to
finish her.

Castle

I continued to the castle, where a force bolt took care of the drawbridge. This
time there were no winter wolves inside so I killed defenders with magic
missiles, then jumped in. I got the wand and went to kill the dragons. First I
opened the door to meet orange and silver dragon. While beating them, the other
dragons, black and yellow one thought it would be time for a walk. Black dragon
crashed through the door and almost hit me with a blast of disintegration.
Luckily for me, his breath bounced from the wall and hit yellow dragon _behind_
the black one. I closed door behind be, killed the silver dragon while black
one flied to throne room.

When I got to throne room, I tried to take the remaining two with magic
missiles - unluckily the black dragon disintegrated my cloak and my armor. I
decided to pull back since I wasn't disintegration resistant. Wearing a ring of
polymorph control, I went back to gnomish town where I thought I left my cloak
of magic resistance. Nothing. I used my first wand to wishing for a new grey
dragon scale mail and for gauntlets of dexterity. Next I used my magic markers
to write scrolls of enchant armor and scrolls of genocide. I genocided
'L's 'h's and 'R's to make sure there weren't any
surprises. Newly equipped, remaining two dragons were dead in no time. From now
on, I would never try to kill a black dragon from a distance.

On my way to the vibrating square

I jumped down to the Valley of Dead, set up the lights with my new spell,
light, and descended to Gehennom. When I found lair of Asmodeus, I got next to
him while he was still peaceful. I decided to talk to him and he asked me to
pay for a passage. He settled for 820 zorkmids, I thought it was reasonable so
I gave him the money and he let me pass. I never thought a demon had use for
money - for that small amount of money. The other demons didn't accept my
payment, but were quite easy to handle. The only one causing me trouble was
Orcus, who paralyzed me a couple of times while smaller demons kept hitting me.

While fighting my way down to the bottom I used the Eye couple of times to get
back up to get to donate to the priest. After few times, my natural AC was 1. I
got to the bottom, found the vibrating square and decided to drop the Bell.
Second thoughts, perhaps I wouldn't. I forgot to pack my wand of lightning so I
couldn't burn "Elbereth" on the floor. Oh well, on my way back up.

Once I was back at my stash I used ages in sacrificing monsters to my god
(that "create monster" -spell sure did come handy) to get some
potions of water blessed. While doing this, I got crowned (which slowed the
process a bit) and was given a few artifacts and a spellbook of finger of
death. Definetly not a bad omen.

Vlad and the Wizard

I got the wand, went back down, took care of Vlad the Impaler and the
Candelabrum and dropped the invocation artifacts next to the square. Next, I'd
be facing the Wizard - this time equipped with a finger of death. Oh, this
would be fun. :-)

I continued my journey to meet the Wizard. I casted "dig" to get to
the Wizard and instantly, he teleported right next to me. As he was floating
above water, I moved one square back so his belongings wouldn't drop to the
water. Once he was on solid ground, I casted finger of death at him and that
was it. I took the Amulet and went to the bottom. I never actually saw the
Wizard on my way down.

Amulet of Yendor

It took me quite a while to find the door to Moloch's sanctum by casting
"dig". After killing high-priest, Moloch zapped me and my ring of
free action exploded. I used one lase remaining wish of my original wand for a
new one. I grabbed the Amulet and started ascending to the surface.

I barely saw any sings of the Wizard, my Magicbane absorbed all but on try to
curse my stuff. Ascending was, still, a pain as I got thrown back down several
times. When I finally got back to dungeons of doom, I collected most important
items from my stashes, blessed my stuff and went to the planes.

End game

This time plane of earth was easy - I never even had to use axe nor spell
"dig". Wizard popped up a couple of times, but finger of death was
too much for him. Plane of air almost got me killed - those nasty air
elementals kept swallowing me until I realized that I shouldn't kill those nice
little energy vortexes. Energy vortexes provided me a safe place to eat and
heal myself. After killing about ten dragons I found the portal when a monster
disappeared from sight.

Plane of fire was a pain as usually. Not just because it took two hours to get
past it but also because I didn't have ring of levitation. Archons provided me
company which kept me busy but also my belly satisfied. Finally I found the
portal and entered plane of water. After arriving the plane of water I read my
"last change" -scroll of genocide to wipe out ';'s. There
was no other way to survive this place with all those sea monsters around
without an amulet of magical breathing. I kept searching for the portal and
this time I found it pretty soon.

Astral plane

Ah, the astral plane. This time, too, I was given a guardian angel. I took my
wands of death and wand of wishing out the bag and started writing scrolls of
charging and charging my wands of death (which were unused already). My plans
to prepare my equipment was cut short as the door to the left opened and some
angels appeared. Oh great, I was to fight Pestilence. Pestilence managed to hit
me once before I killed him with good old finger of death. I healed myself with
my unicorn horn and fought to the altar. I was almost offering the amulet as I
realized the altar was not Thoth's but Ptah's. Oops. :-)

Next I decided to get past Death as I had never met him before. I managed to
get past Pestilence with no skirmish - the insects blocked him from reaching me.
I realized that finger of death would be useless with Death so I took him down
with magic missiles. He even tried to teleport away but failed. I only had to
kill him once and I already was at the alter. At Thoth's alter.

Final thoughts

Thinking it, playing wizard instead of samurai was easy. Starting the game was
the hard part, not the rest of it. It only took me a day to get from Medusa to
the astral plane while with samurai it took me a day to get to the astral plane
from Moloch's sanctum. Which role to play next ?-)